just recording things that make an impression on me...for whatever reason

02 February 2015

makes scents to me

a long time ago, i read that smell is a most powerful conduit in terms of memory-making - that a scent can quickly transport you back to a place, an event, or a person in your past. to that end, even though i don't wear it regularly anymore, i try to wear a spritz of my favorite perfume when i'm around the little girl. i always have. i want her to remember me.

yesterday, all my efforts paid off. while having tea with the girl, she related this story: earlier in the day, she had taken a walk through their quiet village with the little girl. at one point, the little girl stopped, sniffed the air, and said it smelled like - me! me!! eventually the girl too smelled the sweet scent, but could not identify it.

now, there was no one around, least of all me, so it wasn't the perfume. clearly, in the dead of winter, it could not be emanating from anything green and growing. woodsmoke? - i thought? i certainly hope not. i pondered this for hours before i finally came up with a feasible answer to this conundrum. i bet the smell was coming from a dryer vent behind some house. i bet the little girl thinks i smell like dryer sheets.

5 comments:

I love that!!! I have always worn perfume! I wear it every single day - even if I stay in my gown and robe. Different scents but always something. I think my signature fragrance may well be Pine Sol!!! I use it a lot!!! Not as perfume but similar to your dryer sheets!

This is a great post. I agree that scents evoke memories. A certain furniture polish (not Pledge, BTW) brings back childhood memories of my mother shining up the wood furniture in our home. Our brains are wonderfully designed.

So as I get back into my photography, I'm dusting off my blog. It had been spammed and shut down, and I had to do some maintenance with the powers that be to get it going, but I think it's going to be back. Anyhoo, you're one of about four people who ever read it, and I just linked to here and see that you've been going strong all this time.

I love this post. What a cool thing—very Proustian, and yet very personal.

Take care, Chris. And thanks for your continued support on my photography. I love yours too!

who i am & what i do

i live & take pictures & attempt to write here in northern new england, usa. if the pictures are too small for you, just click on them and they'll show bigger. and if the writing is too cheesy or mundane for you, just move on and find yourself another blog to read. i won't mind. no hard feelings. truly.